Goals 2015 Revisited

Everything affects each other. I will slightly alter the order of goals for the purpose of this analysis, so it will be presented in more coherent way.
Let’s start from the goal #2, because its execution affected others.

#2 Quit my job.

To quit my job I need to increase my income from online ventures. First and foremost: sell more books. I decided that I need a subgoal for that – publishing a dozen books in 2015. It didn’t work out as planned…
Heck, I published only seven books, including one very short (and free, so it doesn’t bring income directly) and one co-authored (so it required less workload).
But I quit my job…

And I got a new job at another company. This was both blessing and curse. At the end of December I received my first salary with fees for stand-by for the client. It’s almost 23% bonus to my salary. I amassed quite a number of overtime too. Bonus for that will be coming in January.
My commute is shorter, and working hours are more flexible.

But I have a lot more work to do on a daily basis.
It’s a miracle that I launched “Bulletproof…” in December. It was mega crazy time at my job. It was possible only because of the support of my friend, Anthony Smits, who proofread a ton of my texts and prepared also bonus materials. I’m still amazed how we pulled it off.

Good. I had the same surreal feeling after publishing “Master Your Time”. Till this day, it is one of my books that has sold more copies than any other.

But still… I barely can find time for writing. I can’t squeeze editing into my days. I stopped a few habits, including blogs reading and commenting which helped me a lot with my networking.
I’m exhausted.
I feel like I am in a race. I sometimes wonder what will give up first: my sanity? my body? my determination? or my obstacles?

#3, Growing my email list.

A year ago I stated: “This year, the goal is simply 1000 people.”
Well, I published only 7 books. No wonder I didn’t reach half the number of new subscribers I forecasted. To be exact, the number is 312.

Some good things regarding my list happened too. I surveyed my readers and they asked for a regular weekly email. Well, it was all but regular, but I had sent them about 10 emails more than I would have done without that piece of info.
The increased engagement is noticeable. Because of changes in Amazon Kindle Unlimited program, I no longer launch my books for free. “Know Yourself…” and “Bulletproof…” were launched as paid. And both times, about 20-30 of my subscribers purchased their copies.

And this is only one metric to measure it. I see it also in bigger number of messages, and they are also more personal. We get to know each other better.
But numbers are numbers. This goal can only be described as a failure, or in corporate jargon, ‘a small victory’.

#1. Unity in my marriage.

It’s bad. No, it’s even worse.
We don’t have time for each other. We are both constantly tired. My new work takes its toll. My wife works on different shifts, including nightly, and she is exhausted too.

Even things that got better, like my wife respecting my writing time and business activities, is rather a result of indifference than reflection.
Frankly, I deserved it getting worse. I have only one daily habit regarding this goal and it’s too little to make a difference. I need more; more focus, more attention, more intention, and more time for my marriage.
This is my worst failure in 2015.

Achieved without goals

As usual, more things happened in the past year than I planned. I still claim that goals are limiting in their nature.
I published my books on other platforms –iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc. The revenue and sales are laughable, but Amazon reward for exclusiveness is laughable as well and I’m reaching people I wouldn’t have reached otherwise. At least one reader bought my book on iTunes and gave me a review on Amazon.

Master Your Time was published in Spanish. It won’t make me rich, that’s almost sure, but it was in a nice position in my Mexican partner catalog. He was invited by Amazon for the biggest book fair in Mexico and he had to answer the question: “How it was possible that a book written by a Polish in English and translated by a Mexican to Spanish was sold in Japan?”

On 7th of December I published my first researched and prepared answer on Quora. Before the end of the month my answers got over 50,000 views and I’ve noticed a slight elevation in my book sales level. The best of it? I share mostly my old content, blog posts from 2013 and 2014, my books and articles. The stuff I had written years ago gives me a boost of exposure now. I’m blessed that I have so much to share. I’ve been writing and writing for more than two years. It pays dividends today.

I met a millionaire online, Aaron Walker and joined his Community. Frankly, I haven’t gotten anything tangible out of it yet. It’s just refreshing to connect with entrepreneurs who are on a much higher level than me. And to connect with millionaires, there is a shortage of them in my life.

I changed my job. The atmosphere in the new office is much better. There is a lot of mutual respect instead of office politics and power struggles. And I earn more. 😉